URBANOHUMANOhttp://urbanohumano.org
Civic Innovation Firm by Domenico Di SienaTue, 06 Dec 2016 10:30:09 +0000en-GBhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.726666978#CIVICMARATHON to promote the CIVIC PRACTICES bookhttp://urbanohumano.org/civic-engagement/civicmarathon/
http://urbanohumano.org/civic-engagement/civicmarathon/#respondWed, 01 Jun 2016 19:40:36 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5191As you may already know at the beginning of 2015 I worked with other friends in London to start the CivicWise community in order to promote projects of collective intelligence, collaborative urbanism, citizen empowerment and civic innovation. CivicWise is an open community in which everyone can participate and exchange experiences and knowledge, creating new synergies […]

]]>As you may already know at the beginning of 2015 I worked with other friends in London to start the CivicWise community in order to promote projects of collective intelligence, collaborative urbanism, citizen empowerment and civic innovation.

CivicWise is an open community in which everyone can participate and exchange experiences and knowledge, creating new synergies and opportunities.

One of its main objectives is to create an archive and mapping of projects, activities, spaces and existing research that may be considered a reference in the field of citizenship capacity for action, collaborative planning and civic innovation.

The first step to build this archive is editing a book entitled Civic Practices. To finance it, a campaign is ongoing in Goteo crowdfunding platform.

If you want to be one of the first to get a copy of this new book, must visit this site and contribute to the campaign. Before year-end will receive directly at home a brand-new copy. CONTRIBUTE AND GET YOUR COPY HERE > https://en.goteo.org/project/civic-practices

To promote crowdfunding campaign we are organizing a marathon streaming for Sunday June 5th. The marathon will take place between 12h and 16h (Madrid time).

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/civic-engagement/civicmarathon/feed/05191Design By Datahttp://urbanohumano.org/architecture/designbydata/
http://urbanohumano.org/architecture/designbydata/#respondSun, 03 Jan 2016 18:32:56 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5088Since October 2015 I am officially one of the professors of the Master on Advanced Computational Design and Making of the Ecole des Ponts, one of the most prestigious universities in France. At the same time I take care of the strategy and online communication. The Advanced Master on Computational Design and Making is an […]

]]>Since October 2015 I am officially one of the professors of the Master on Advanced Computational Design and Making of the Ecole des Ponts, one of the most prestigious universities in France. At the same time I take care of the strategy and online communication.

The Advanced Master on Computational Design and Making is an initiative designed by Francesco Cingolani, one of the most renowned experts on Computational Design.

The aim of the Advanced Master is to provide students with a cross-disciplinary culture of computational design, from parametric conception to extensive knowledge of the impact of digital design and making tools on artistic professions, design, urban planning, architecture and engineering. The training has been designed as an augmented experience including courses, prototyping workshops, conferences, maker-spaces visits and networking events. The courses and conferences will take place in multiple locations in Paris, making this training a true opportunity to discover innovative places in the capital.

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/architecture/designbydata/feed/05088Plazaletras – public space for emerging models of citizenshiphttp://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/plazaletras/
http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/plazaletras/#commentsSun, 03 Jan 2016 16:03:06 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5050The last February for 15 days Medialab Prado has become my office to develop the project [common]: loclafeed under the Open Up workshop. The aim of the project is to display in the new digital facade of Medialab Prado daily information porduced online by neighbors moving the public internet space physical information that generally is […]

The aim of the project is to display in the new digital facade of Medialab Prado daily information porduced online by neighbors moving the public internet space physical information that generally is accessed privately.

That’s how I presented the project the first day at Medialab Prado:

The experience has been very interesting especially thanks to the many contributors who have signed up to help with the project: architects, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, artists, researchers and students.

The first was to define the identity (or brand) project, and we decided to change from “Localfeed” to “Plazaletras” because we were working with a digital facade installed in Plaza de las Letras in Madrid.

Alfonso was responsible for assembling all the web part, working at www.plazaletras.es portal. The web portal represents a major point of contact and interaction between the neighbors and the digital facade. The portal lets users add a sentence of 140 characters or the RSS feed from a neighborhood blog or a local online news portal.

To disseminate the project we worked with social networks most used in Spain: Tuenti, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/plaza-letras-304228807308/) and Twitter (@plazaletras). We only contact with neighbors or those visiting the neighborhood. Tuenti is being a surprisingly interesting tool because it allows search among all users using as a parameter the school where they have studied or nightlife district; in our case we looked for people who have studied in the only school in the district and people going out in this neighborhood.

Another part of the work is to search blogs published by neighbors, so we looked for it on the network www.ciudadanosdemadrid.net, http://www.directorioblogs.es and similar aggregators.

During the 15-day workshop we have dedicated ourselves to connect with neighbors and we have also launched various activities in the streets surrounding the Medialab Prado. We have published a brochure presenting the project and disseminated it within the neighborhood.

We used post-it like a guerrilla marketing. We’ve cut them to the shape the screen so that they became as iconic as possible and we have filled the neighborhood with post-it type that you see in the picture.

To publicize the project we have developed two videos, one edited by Francesca,

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/plazaletras/feed/15050LocalFeedhttp://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/localfeed-geo-referenced/
http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/localfeed-geo-referenced/#respondSun, 03 Jan 2016 12:42:53 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5046LocalFeed offers a collaborative platform with editable and hyperlocal flows and geo-referenced information; associated maps (geo) RSS (syndication of Web content) and wiki technology (collaboration) with the aim of creating a web site where display all kinds of information and local social networks. Developed in collaboration with Horacio Gonzalez (escoitar.org). The next phase of this project […]

]]>LocalFeed offers a collaborative platform with editable and hyperlocal flows and geo-referenced information; associated maps (geo) RSS (syndication of Web content) and wiki technology (collaboration) with the aim of creating a web site where display all kinds of information and local social networks.

The next phase of this project has been the development of Plazaletras that propose to display in the new digital facade of Medialab Prado online information routinely produced by neighbors, moving to public physical space information that generally is only accessed privately.

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/localfeed-geo-referenced/feed/05046Todo Sobre Mi Barrio (All About My Neighborhood)http://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/todo-sobre-mi-barrio-neighborhood/
http://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/todo-sobre-mi-barrio-neighborhood/#respondSun, 03 Jan 2016 12:27:46 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5037On March 31st of 2007 has been released the project Todo Sobre Mi Barrio, proposed by the Laboratorio Urbano and Algomas art collective (I am a member of both) for the Intermediae Culutal Program at Matadero Madrid. The project carries behind a long field work, ideation and management. It will last two months during which […]

]]>On March 31st of 2007 has been released the project Todo Sobre Mi Barrio, proposed by the Laboratorio Urbano and Algomas art collective (I am a member of both) for the Intermediae Culutal Program at Matadero Madrid. The project carries behind a long field work, ideation and management. It will last two months during which there will be an open “wikispace”.
The project consists of three parts: a site map (Todo Sobre Mi Barrio) in which the user may publish multimedia files associated with a precise location of the city; that is, a citizen communication tool.
Secondly, the material that participants contribute to the site map will be presented in the wikispace located in Intermediae during the months of April and May 2007. Every Saturday, organizers made available to the locals and visitors in general , to answer questions, help explain details or use the map.

The third part of the project consists of four workshops for citizen participation. Through a series of dynamic and games we will work on the mapping of positive and negative points of the area (threats, problems, strengths, solutions …) The result of the workshops will join the site map and exhibiton . On May 24 there will be a public presentation of the project results, and a discussion of the future that a tool of this type could have on the city of Madrid will open.

The web platform used is the result of work done with a group of friends. We called it meipi and you can find more information on page www.meipi.org.

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/todo-sobre-mi-barrio-neighborhood/feed/05037Meipi | Geoblogs Platformhttp://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/meipi-geoblogs/
http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/meipi-geoblogs/#respondSat, 02 Jan 2016 18:40:36 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=5026In 2007 after the project Todo Sobre Mi Madre, I throw myself into a new adventure with Alfonso Sanchez Uzábal, Francesco Cingolani, Pablo Rey, Jorge Alvaro y Guillermo Alvaro. The result is a new platform for collaborative georeferencing and geoblogs called Meipi. web: http://meipi.org What is a meipi? A meipi is a collaborative space where users can […]

]]>In 2007 after the project Todo Sobre Mi Madre, I throw myself into a new adventure with Alfonso Sanchez Uzábal, Francesco Cingolani, Pablo Rey, Jorge Alvaro y Guillermo Alvaro. The result is a new platform for collaborative georeferencing and geoblogs called Meipi.

What is a meipi?
A meipi is a collaborative space where users can upload information and content around a map. Each meipi has a particular context, which can be local (when the entries are related to a specific area), or thematic (when the content is associated with a particular idea).

How can a meipi be useful?
A meipi allows a group of users to share information around a place or a topic. It can be very useful for collaborative dynamics, workshops, associations, enterprises, groups of friends, artistic actions…

In meipi.org we already have several meipis created by different users. They cover different areas and topics, showing what a meipi can offer.

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/meipi-geoblogs/feed/05026URBAN APERTURE(S) >< POROSITY AS A NEW MODEL FOR HYBRID PUBLIC SPACEhttp://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/new-paper-urban-aperture/
http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/new-paper-urban-aperture/#commentsSun, 20 Dec 2009 11:37:03 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=421This paper was included into the book “URBAN HYBRIDIZATION in Contemporary Territories”. Here you can read the english version and you can find the spanish version here. Submmited by: Francesco Cingolani, Domenico Di Siena, Manu Fernández, Paco González, César Reyes Nájera and Ethel Baraona Pohl. URBAN APERTURE | POROSITY AS A NEW MODEL FOR HYBRID PUBLIC […]

In the past 20 years, the communications revolution produced by the Internet substantially affected the way we interact with the world. This has driven us to a change of perception in the traditionally recognized opposition between real and virtual. Nowadays, a new paradigm is actually re-drawing reality as a complex system of relations between layers as “face” (physical) and virtual. Architects and urban planners can no longer ignore this new reality generated by ubiquitous computer technologies that we have translated to the reconfiguration of physical space in urban areas, with the term “hybrid public spaces”.

This “hybridization” of space is only an expression of wider radical changes between analytical systems (order and spacing) to synthetic (complexity, connectivity, permeability) ones. In a system characterized by its high capacity for communication, if space becomes a mix between reality and virtual presence, the separation between private and public space becomes obsolete. According to this theory of urban permeability, the concept of “filter” is important as a new indispensable (Technological? Architectural? Social? Cultural? ) device. Filter as a mean of connection with the capacity of handling private/public, real/virtual, inside a system where the channels are not separated anymore. Now these channels are communicating -APERTURE-.

In this model, public space is defined as the space in which information can flow freely. The public information consists in the communication generated from private channels screened by urban filters. In our point of view, this filter function cannot be automated: only people, through his sensitivity and emotions, can solve this function of discernment.

We propose an anthropocentric definition of these «hybrid public space»: considering the technological importance of information channels but restoring spirituality and intelligence that can only be provided by humans beings.

1. CURRENT MODEL: HYBRID SPACE’S THEORY

As commented by Daniel Innerarity in 2006, talking about the city: homogeneous and stable space is now an extreme case within a global area of local manifolds connected. Rather than neighborhoods, local networks are developed and public debate is conducted in a virtual space, where streets and squares are no longer the primary venue and staging.

Internet seems to offer an alternative “place” to the “traditional” sites for social relationships. This fact can be understood as a problem that can increase the subsequent depletion of public space, or conversely, may be regarded as an extraordinary opportunity to strength local social relationships, creating the necessary budgets to improve the vitality of the public spaces. Internet is now the “place” where the most successful models of collective management are being tested.

According to Juan Freire, the crisis of urban public spaces (physical) is also due to the lack of (open) design that generate into citizens a genuine interest to use it. Freire has successfully introduced into the discussion concepts like “hybrid spaces” to refer to the opportunities offered by the hybridization of the physical and digital in public spaces.

Social Networks: Communities 3.0

When Internet access became popular, in the late nineties, many fans spent hours chatting with anyone, in open chat rooms. Today, in social networks the behaviour is different. In these networks we’re not interested in talk just with someone else, rather than that, we want to meet people with whom we share a certain passion. A social network consists of two things, first a window (a personal description) and secondly, a system to establish contact (friendship) with other users (that’s communication).

The space has been transformed into a network, a permanent flow. When these relationships used to happen in a presential space, in most of the cases it was a public space. This was the space in which everyone was able to show himself and where he could meet and communicate with other people. This public open window is probably not enough anymore for one reason: it’s too generic. Now…prior to “spend” time in getting to know someone deeply, you want to know more, or have some more safeguards, such as the fact that he or she is friend of your friends, or likely that both of you have similar ideas and tastes, like attending the same entertainment venues.

The importance of Self-organization

Self-organization & “prosumer”

New communication technologies enable new ways of collaboration and organization oriented to the management of common property (public spaces). From one side, there are emerging self-organizing phenomena as described by Kevin Kelly in “Out of Control”Smart Mobs” (2002), while, in the other hand, methods and collaborative Open Source movements are constantly developing, improving and spreading. The self-organizing capabilities of informed societies, capable of reinvent their structures, are being discovered, and the way they use the phenomenon of virtual mirror allowing the interaction between information about an specific situation with individual decisions.

Digital citizen participation, supported by computer tools, is not based on a model that express the plurality and organization of constituted communities. This is a non-collective way of participation since the dynamic comes from individual action and interaction. (1994) and by Howard Rheingold in ”

Decentralization

The networks boost a new type of control: decentralized control operated by a plurality of independent individuals who collaborate using distributed mobile computing and communication capabilities. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) do not represent the solution, but an opportunity to improve our ability to manage the territory. They can be used for completely different and contradictory purposes. On one side you can take advantage of its enormous data processing capacity to centralize all information and try to “solve” the urban complexity, but they can also be used to open and decentralized decision making.

The presence of a centralized entity is not required when the control devices and return of information (feedback) allows the actors to see or realize the consequences of their actions. The phenomenon of unconscious self-organization becomes conscious and intentional control when it allows individuals to understand the effects of their actions. Here we can talk about the concept of tensegrity, when referring to a management model where decentralized decisions join centralized ones preventing a fully closed and omnipresent “dynamic of control” .

Reversing the supremacy of centralization on individual decisions, citizens can become aware of their actions and coordinate them intentionally. This process can get back the necessary legitimacy and credibility to interventions in degraded urban areas.

Open Source City

The Open Source (OS) development model presents quite interesting features that could be applied in urban management processes. Very interesting is the concept of “integrator”, which coordinates new software’s versions, approving or rejecting the integration of new pieces in the code: a coordination position without the possibility of liability of any kind. This model has three different advantages when it is adopted for the development of an urban project:

1) Avoid arbitrary exclusions. The project accurately reflects the needs and uses.
2) Rapid and evolutionary benefits from the dynamism of your community.
3) Durability, once the project is relevant, its developments and adjustments are secure.

The Open Source philosophy shares with cities the economic principles of urban agglomeration and networking. Just like the OS that appears where the common benefit is bigger than the sum of private interests; cities appear when their infrastructure and facilities benefit the community in such way, that justify high expenditures. At the same time it has been observed that the development of urban areas are largely the result of spontaneous actions and communitarian dynamism, while no institution is able to centralize the decisions. These dynamics allow the possibility of freeing the distribution of services and public goods (at least in part) of some political decisions, that end up damaging some urban areas with its low coherence and slowness.

2. SOME EXAMPLES ABOUT HYBRID SPACE’S MODELS

Oportunities

Internet offers two interesting things: horizontal communication and transparency. Both characteristics differs from what our contemporary society is used to. Transparent communication means that everyone can communicate with everyone, there is no hierarchy and information travels with the same rights in all directions.

Many projects have proved nowadays that Internet is capable of contacting people from the same neighborhood and then organize physical events, due to the fact of living nearby. This means that Internet is able to create synergies between physical and virtual networks.

This is a local social network for recreational urban re-qualification. Users of this network can propose urban actions, meet their neighbors and improve living environment in enhancing the networking between residents of the neighborhood. Under the circumstance of games and challenges offered by its users, it can be developed different actions in the physical public space, connecting in an interesting way the virtual with the physical environment.

SOS is a virtual device to post messages (offers, requests and alerts to citizens) in public spaces and events. It’s inspired by the traditional English Speaker’s Corner and is linked to other Platoniq’s projects, as Burn Station and the Bank of Common Knowledge.

Its scoop is to link people from the same area with common interests that wants to share information and resources. With the SOS application, interested people can record advertisements that are searchable on the Internet, according to topics and keywords. When it finds connections between specific responses to messages or advertisements, an SMS is automatically sent to the interested persons to fix a possible meeting.

SOS is aimed to small communities of users sharing a problem, which are close geographically, but doesn’t known each other, or users that are seeking to exchange something. This new paradigm can also be applied in organizations that were born from networking and ICTs. Using creative dynamics, they seek to solve problem through cooperation and self-organization of equals.

Meipi proposes an innovative model of georeferenced content management through the creation of collaborative spaces called “geoblog” or “wikimap”. This is a way to publish information which is part of a georeferenced collective publication, in the same way as the blog is a way of individual posting on the Internet.

Also, Meipi can be the start point of local media and hyper-local social networks, where virtual relationships can become “real” contacts or events in the nearest public space. It can reinforce local networks through new types of social media (news media which are produced by a particular community) that can be defined as “local social media”, where the community producing the news is made up of people from the same local environment, ie. the same neighborhood.

With new technologies there are new opportunities to create virtual public spaces, capable of developing new interactions in a local context. Communication between neighbors is the first step for increasing social capital and also improve the quality of life in a neighborhood.

NeighbourTXT assigns a phone number to each district – allowing fragmented communities to communicate and interact. It aims to help residents improve their quality of life through increased social capital.

‘screen’ connects people, places and time zones, while proposing an exchange of perceptions between people from different cultures. Using a positive approach to the concept of monitoring, it allows the virtual space’s characteristics to reach the public space.

‘screen’ permits people to see how other culture acts, select a square from another country and see by themselves what happens there, instead of having the media as intermediaries.

People often have a negative reaction to these technologies. This project takes the idea and technology of CCTV surveillance and uses it in a positive way, not only to expand the potential of public space and make connections between spaces and people, but also to help people to accept the reality of a future in which surveillance in public space will be a commonplace.

Screen

Bus Browser
Chris Vanstone, Jennie Winhall / UK (www.fusedspace.org)

Bus Browser proposes to redesign public buses as vehicles for the community, beginning with the replacement of mass media advertising used to “invade” the buses with an information system generated by the local community.

Bus Browser adds value to the virtual information, giving it a physical context. Passengers face opportunities in real time, while going through real places.

Bus Browser

A google architecture

Andreas Ferm + Jani Kristoffersen / Jani Kristoffersen + Andreas Ferm / Sweden (www.fusedspace.org)
This project creates a scenario for a not so distant future. This is a reflection about architecture, politics and the possibilities offered by new technologies. It presents new ways to associate virtual information to physical spaces that are now almost a reality: Augmented Reality. Who will control the city average?

Each city has its cinematic history that allows us to reconstruct the different roles that has played through history. City.film.museum gives us ideas on what the city has been, what the city is this and what could be a possible future through a projection of desires, hopes and fears.

The interaction between the film and the real city allows to explore the city in new ways.

The structure is an hybrid which stands in the urban space, enriching it through the addition of a new perception layer.

Artificial Sky
David Ruy, Karel / USA (www.fusedspace.org)

This is a proposal for an artificial sky in Central Park, New York. Exploring new possibilities for interlinking natural and artificial systems, it merges the virtual and real using high technological conditions.

A light structure formed by a cable network is deployed to become an ephemeral infrastructure. This cable network will operate as a “sponge” that absorbs and reflects the natural and artificial means. With this Artificial Sky, it will be induced climate zones (fogging systems, heat lamps, etc.) with lighting effects and also areas with environmental sounds.

The examples of hybrid spaces we have mentioned above show a breakdown in traditional conception that used to establish an opposition between between real and virtual space.

This hybridisation of space is actually an expression of a radical and comprehensive change, that moves us from an analytical system (order and separation) to a synthetic (complexity, connectivity, permeability). Thus, there is a perceptual transference of reality, reflected in the step from a bipolar structure of opposition (material / immaterial) to a multilayer structure and interconnections, in which the physical represents only one of these layers.

Accepting the existence of intangible factors in the world’s settings is obviously not something new. What changes now is the perception of such intangibles as structuring the world and our daily life, besides being fundamental for their interaction. It could be say that technology is reducing the gap between the material and spiritual.

Communicating vessels: André Breton used this physical process as a metaphor for the restoration of unity between the world of wakefulness and sleep

In a system characterized by its high capacity of communication, micro-communications are multiplied and with them, the contents that produce reality. Much of the impressions that are traditionally considered as part of the private sphere, are now transformed into media content, traveling through different technologies, each one with differents level of privacy (or publicity). This variable privacy level makes obsolete the traditional gap between private and public.

From an architectural point of view, the space is reconfigured as a diffuse and decentralized structure. The nodal model of public space (the square) is evolving towards a model of micro public spaces with a completely new horizontal and hyperlocal nature.

Proposal: Space + relationships = URBAN APERTURE(S)

These considerations impose a revision on the definition of “public space”, understood untill now as the place where anyone is free to move. This definition has been established based on a purely physical interpretation of the space, in fact focused on the right of the body (physical) to move freely. In our model, public space is defined as the place where information reaches its lower levels of privacy and runs transparently. From the standpoint of sociology, this definition implies a relational vision of public space, where communication is free.
That’s why we called our model URBAN APERTURE(S), focusing our research towards porous urban settings (filters), which replaces the analytical model of separations (walls).

The word APERTURE means “small opening” while at the same time it refers to a device that controls amount of light admitted through cameras. We believe that urban and architectural research should move towards this model of openness, and try to configure the spaces following these assumptions of permeability, transparency and mixed nature.

APERTURE(S) would be therefore a new device – Technological? Architectural? Social? Cultural? – able to make connections between private and public, physical and virtual, in a system where these media are not presented separately but communicating.

APERTURE(S) concept visualisation

These changes, despite being inspired by new technologies, are presented as an opportunity to change the current material and the technocentric system, toward a new order that restores spirituality and intelligence that can only be provided by humans beings.

This anthropocentric view, spatially founded in a relational interpretation of architecture and space, is also presented in a historical moment in which the former organizational structure, based on the consumption of objects, tragically shows its economic and environmental limits.

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]]>http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/new-paper-urban-aperture/feed/2421Cities for Life | Global Meeting 2015 | Medellínhttp://urbanohumano.org/civic-innovation/cities-for-life-global-meeting-2015-medellin/
http://urbanohumano.org/civic-innovation/cities-for-life-global-meeting-2015-medellin/#respondThu, 20 Aug 2015 14:06:16 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=4544I’m glad to announce that next week I will travel to Colombia to take part on the Cities for Life Global Meeting in Medellin. I’ve recently travelled to Medellin and I was really surprised about its civic innovation process. So it’s a double pleasure to be there again! Discover more here: http://citiesfor.life Within the Meeting […]

]]>I’m glad to announce that next week I will travel to Colombia to take part on the Cities for Life Global Meeting in Medellin. I’ve recently travelled to Medellin and I was really surprised about its civic innovation process. So it’s a double pleasure to be there again!

Within the Meeting there will be two components: one political and the other technical. The goal of both will be to set in motion a collaborative model of citizen innovation. In the political component, invited leaders and delegations will meet in order to create a declaration which will include agreements, goals, and guidelines for action regarding how to take on challenges aimed at building more effective cities for comprehensive human development. In the technical component, a scaled and real-time exercise will take place on the CITIES FOR LIFE co-creation platform. Six experts will describe issues on topics like mobility, urban planning and design, social development, environment, government, and security, and they will specify a challenge that requires several multiple solution proposals. I will contribute on Social Development. Later, representatives of the participating innovative cities will present success stories so that later, they can jointly establish a series of technical recommendations that will allow cities to orient their decisions for taking on and overcoming those challenges.

What is the CITIES FOR LIFE ecosystem platform?

The platform combines social technologies with information and communication. Miguel Aristizábal, coordinator of open innovation at Ruta N and director of the CITIES FOR LIFE ecosystem, explains that it “methodologically processes the specific needs of cities to find their critical causes and, from there, to create urban challenges. The platform will then receive solution proposals from the global community and a database of successful innovation experiences. Based on them, academia will create guidelines for a plan of action to solve common issues for cities.

Civicwise and Civic Point Network project

Besides my participation as an expert contributing on the co-creation of the platform I will be presenting the Civicwise community and Civic Point Network project. I hope we can achieve an agreement for a partnership between Civicwise and CITIES FOR LIFE and go ahead with the idea to develop an international network of Civic Point. About this specific project I hope I can tell you more soon.

——- >

I think you should have a look at this interesting Citizen Co-creation Platform developed in Medellin > http://www.mimedellin.org/. This platform is coordinated by Miguel Aristizábal Londoño (@miguelaristi) who is also the Director of Cities for Life, so I have great expectation.

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]]>http://urbanohumano.org/civic-innovation/cities-for-life-global-meeting-2015-medellin/feed/04544Housing project that’s making a difference? Enter the World Habitat Awardshttp://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/housing-project-thats-making-a-difference-enter-the-world-habitat-awards/
http://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/housing-project-thats-making-a-difference-enter-the-world-habitat-awards/#respondWed, 22 Apr 2015 09:58:31 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=4366During my last trip in Colombia I received this interesting information from my friend Line Algoed (@linealgoed) that I am happy to share with all of you. I think could a great opportunity for some of you. The annual World Habitat Awards are a great way of identifying and celebrating good practice in housing worldwide […]

]]>During my last trip in Colombia I received this interesting information from my friend Line Algoed (@linealgoed) that I am happy to share with all of you. I think could a great opportunity for some of you.

The annual World Habitat Awards are a great way of identifying and celebrating good practice in housing worldwide and entries are now open for the 2015/16 competition.

Previous winners have included projects which demonstrate the wider benefits of good housing, for example health improvements, energy savings or improved community cohesion. Recent winners have included projects which have had a significant impact on people’s lives by tackling topics as wide-ranging as chronic homelessness and the regeneration of historic cities. Many winning projects were particularly innovative in the ways they have been able to mobilise citizens creating change from the bottom up.

BSHF runs the Awards in partnership with UN-Habitat and this brings clear benefits for the winners. As well as this high profile, international recognition for their innovative practices, winning projects also receive a cash prize of £10,000, a trophy and have the opportunity to transfer their approach through peer-exchange activities sponsored by BSHF.

Entries are assessed by a panel of international judges and trophies will be presented to two winning projects at Habitat lll, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, to be held in Quito, Ecuador in 2016. Holding the presentation at this high profile event will provide increased opportunities for international exposure as well as opportunities for networking and the dissemination of the award winning approaches.

Housing projects which demonstrate practical, innovative and sustainable solutions to current housing needs are invited to submit their entries (in English, Spanish or French) via the World Habitat Awards website (www.worldhabitatawards.org). The competition is open to any individual, organisation or government agency.

]]>http://urbanohumano.org/p2purbanism/housing-project-thats-making-a-difference-enter-the-world-habitat-awards/feed/04366CivicWise: Civic Engagement and Collaborative Urbanismhttp://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/civicwise-community-platform-for-civic-engagement-and-collaborative-urbanism/
http://urbanohumano.org/social-tecnology/civicwise-community-platform-for-civic-engagement-and-collaborative-urbanism/#commentsTue, 07 Apr 2015 16:07:34 +0000http://urbanohumano.org/?p=4322Since the past month of December I’m working on a new ambitious project called CivicWise. CivicWise is a distributed and open community. It’s mission is to empower citizens by fostering collaborative urbanism, promoting civic innovation and inspiring better civic engagement. CivicWise wants to canalise and use the global knowledge to improve any local civic project, […]

]]>Since the past month of December I’m working on a new ambitious project called CivicWise.

CivicWise is a distributed and open community. It’s mission is to empower citizens by fostering collaborative urbanism, promoting civic innovation and inspiring better civic engagement. CivicWise wants to canalise and use the global knowledge to improve any local civic project, involving people all around the world that are facing similar problems.

The project is Open Source and developed with Distributed Governance. Anyone can become part of it.

CivicWise wants to canalise and use the global knowledge to improve any local civic project, involving people all around the world that are facing similar problems. The aim is to federate the global knowledge and experience and use it for local action.

To achieve it we have to change the way how we work. It’s why, one of the main innovation that CivicWise introduces is a Distributed Governance and a Peer to Peer Advice System.

The platform wants to help any citizen or organization to develop community-led projects, providing protocols and tools for a successful codesign process. So far CivicWise have shaped a beta version of a Civic Design Method based on a 10 steps process and it’s using it to shape openly and collaboratively the CivicWise platform itself.

The international scale of the project will forge a new useful Civic and Open Big Data for a wider understanding of ways of improving Civic Engagement and of promoting citizen participation.

Another essential innovation is a special rewarding system, offering the members the opportunity to improve their professional reputation (for the urban and social innovation sector) and be part of the Platform Governance.

CivicWise promotes a better collaboration between general public, university, local business and local authorities.

How the project started

I’ve started thinking about the project at the beginning of December. After some week of work, the first to come on board was Jonathan Reyes (@Ciudad_Basura) whit who I worked from the distance, him in Valencia and me in London. With Jonathan we have shaped the alpha version of the Civic Design Method. Jonathan is part of the collective Carpe Via which is also on board working on the ground in Valencia.

Since the beginning of January I started to talk about the project with a lot of people and finally we create the first London core group formed by Pablo Sendra (@pablo_sendra), Line Algoed (@linealgoed), Fausto Llopis (@FaustoLlopis), Mark Bentley (@framedspace), Orsola De Marco (@OrsolaDeMarco) and me. I think our first meeting/dinner at my house in London has been one of the most important moment for the boost of the project, something like a foundational moment in a way.

Now we are already a community of 200 people. New groups are starting in Dublin, Barcelona and Amsterdam.

The Kickoff event in London

Wednesday 4th March we launched our kick-off event in London where 45 curious attendees gathered to embrace CivicWise from the very beginning. We designed an event with colours and shapes, wine and nibbles, friendly people and positive messages, all in a once deserted office space in Central London that enabled the conversation to start.

That space was fruit of our collaboration with IITSPIRATION, who managed to secure such an amazing environment for a pop-up adventure. That was our first proper partnership.On the day, we were gifted with the presence of people who provided a warm and critical advice on how we can move things forward together.

Beta version of our Civic Design Method

1. OPEN
Telling the idea to other people in order to have a feedback and to understand if is good enough to go ahead with the development.

2. PLAN
Quick Analysis and Research to understand what kind of people and stakeholders are needed to start the process. Plan the following process using the Civic Design Method.

3. ENGAGE
Look for the engagement of a minimum of people that can help with the starting process.

4. IDEAS
Look for new ideas based on the initial one. Make a quick research about similar ideas and experience. This step is understood as an open point when is important to explore different possibilities.

5. DESIGN
Here start the Design phase. This step includes Research and the typical Design element but with a collaborative approach. Here it’s time to depurate different Ideas and focus in a final one.

6. DELIVER
Translate to formal document the final Design. Discover what permissions need the development of the project and apply for them with needed documentations.

7. SPREAD
Spread the word around. It’s important that the local community knows about the project.

8. (CROWD)FUND
Look for funding, could be a crowdfunding process or a classic fundraising process.

9. BUILD
Get the project done.

10. IMPACT
This final step has the objective to find possible synergies between the realised project and other local realities in order to promote a sort of continuity. Measure the impact and the result and maybe plan to start again another project.